Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros

Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (6 January 1756-9 June 1829) was an admiral of the Spanish Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and Viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata from 15 July 1809 to 25 May 1810, succeeding Santiago de Liniers and preceding Francisco Javier de Elio. Cisneros, the commander of the powerful First Rate Santisima Trinidad at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, was later sent to South America to govern Argentina, only to be deposed in the May Revolution. Cisneros became a politician back in Spain, serving as Captain-General of Cadiz and, later, his home city of Cartagena.

Biography
Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was born in Cartagena, Spain on 6 January 1756, and he was named for one of the Biblical magi due to his birthdate falling on the Feast of the Epiphany. He joined the Spanish Navy in 1770, taking part in the military expedition to Algeria and fighting in the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1805, he became captain of the 140-gun First-Rate ship of the line Santisima Trinidad at the Battle of Trafalgar, and he was left partially deaf due to a concussion caused by the fall of the ship's mast during the battle. Cisneros was imprisoned and received medical care, and he became a Lieutenant-General after his return to Spain. Cisneros was sent to govern the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in South America (in what is now Argentina) in 1809 after the Bonapartist Santiago de Liniers was proscribed by the state, and Liniers was forced to resign; in 1810, he attempted to launch a monarchist coup in Cordoba, but he was executed by Cisneros' royalist troops. On 25 May 1810, Cisneros was ousted from power in the May Revolution, becoming a common citizen in Buenos Aires under the Argentine military junta. Cisneros would become Captain-General of Cadiz on his return home, and he was arrested during the Trienio Liberal uprising of 1820 for being loyal to King Fernando VII of Spain. In 1823, he was rewarded with the Captaincy-General of Cartagena, and he died there in 1829.